Don't let officials have to 'break the rules'

The most recent review was conducted on 523 documents, including 76 laws, resolutions, and ordinances of the National Assembly and the National Assembly Standing Committee; 230 decrees of the Government and decisions of the Prime Minister ; and 217 other legal documents issued by central agencies. As a result, there were hundreds of provisions in legal documents that were contradictory, overlapping, or problematic and inadequate.

With 22 key areas (see table), 16 documents (including 8 laws, 6 decrees, 2 circulars) were discovered with 18 contradictory and overlapping regulations. 104 documents with 167 inappropriate and problematic regulations. With documents not belonging to the 22 key areas mentioned above, 99 contents were also discovered with inappropriate and problematic regulations.

Furthermore, the Government 's report to the National Assembly clearly stated that the above-mentioned contradictions and inadequacies are only issues that have been agreed upon between the reviewing agency and the state management agency of the industry, field and that document regulates. Regarding the contents that still have different opinions or need time to classify and review, they have not been "temporarily" counted or summarized. Meanwhile, not only laws but also guiding documents, decrees and circulars are still increasing in number and contradictions and inadequacies continue to arise.

At the ongoing 7th session of the 15th National Assembly, Deputy Lo Thi Luyen ( Dien Bien delegation) cited a "problem that cannot be solved" in this locality when facing conflicts and inconsistencies in regulations. Specifically, the Decree guiding the Law on Environmental Protection 2020 stipulates that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment appraises environmental impact assessment reports for hydropower projects with a capacity of 20 MW or more. Meanwhile, the Decree guiding the Law on Water Resources 2012 currently in effect stipulates that the Provincial People's Committee is only allowed to appraise environmental impact assessment reports for hydropower projects with a capacity of less than 2 MW.

This creates a "legal gap" when no agency is assigned to appraise environmental impact assessment reports of hydropower projects from 2 to 20 MW. Dien Bien province has sent many documents to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment for comments but has not been able to process them. The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment responded that projects under 20 MW have been decentralized to localities, but the current legal regulations only allow localities to appraise projects under 2 MW.

"If the legal system is contradictory, overlapping, and inconsistently applied, then first of all, officials and civil servants will protect their own safety. No one dares to do things that are not clearly regulated by the law. Doing so will lead to legal consequences and personal risks. Currently, there are a number of officials who have suffered legal risks because of unclear regulations. If someone is reckless and decides to do something, they can do it with their eyes closed, but when an event occurs, when inspection and audit agencies come in, they will only apply legal regulations to handle the officials," Ms. Luyen said, adding that the assessment of the spirit, attitude, and responsibility of officials and civil servants needs to be more "core and essential" when it is closely related to the legal system.

The fact that officials avoid and fear responsibility because the legal system is still overlapping, contradictory, and inconsistently applied is also one of the reasons why the National Assembly requested the Government to conduct a general review of the legal document system. Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh, in a recent discussion at the National Assembly, also admitted that the fear of responsibility is caused by institutional problems. The economic recovery package of nearly VND 400,000 billion, implemented in 2 years (2022 - 2023) did not achieve the expected target, also due to encountering "a forest of problems" in mechanisms and procedures.

In fact, officials are afraid of making mistakes and being responsible for many other reasons besides the contradictions and overlaps in the legal system. However, to overcome this mentality, it is not enough to just encourage officials to dare to think and dare to do, but it is also necessary to overcome the shortcomings and overlaps in the legal system that have been pointed out. As Deputy Tran Huu Hau (Tay Ninh delegation) said, it is necessary to build laws so that officials do not have to "dare to think and dare to do" in the sense of "breaking the rules" or having to violate the law to overcome the shortcomings in the reality of the law. Otherwise, the "forest of entanglements", bottlenecks, and bottlenecks in institutions and laws will continue to be the cause of stagnation, congestion, and even hold back the country's development...

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/khong-de-can-bo-phai-xe-rao-185240612224831262.htm